This was surprising, I totally expected Norway, Sweden and Finland to be in the top for all Olympic games due to domination per capita in the Winter Olympics, but that these countries also do well...
This was surprising,
I totally expected Norway, Sweden and Finland to be in the top for all Olympic games due to domination per capita in the Winter Olympics, but that these countries also do well (alongside Denmark) in the summer games is quite shocking: https://medalspercapita.com/#medals-per-capita:summer
If we want to look outside Lichtenstein's tiny population of 36.000, I think we'd be better off looking at areas with a couple hundred thousand people at least, if we're to say something about sportsmanship across the board, or super successful sporting cultures.
I'm guessing the Trøndelag region of central Norway are clearly the best region in the world per capita of an area that size.
Per 2018 (article in Norwegian) a population of 455.000 people had won 109 medals in the winter Olympics alone, which would make it the 15 winningest country in the winter Olympics on its own. That's a winter medal per 4174 people per 2018.
There are also several athletes from the region that have been part of team golds during summer Olympics (Women's soccer, Women's handball, Vebjørn Rodal won 800m gold in Atlanta, Knut Knudsen won gold at 4000m track cycling in 1972, I don't dare to try figuring out silvers and bronze medals because there are so many to check regionality for)
If we break down things further, to compare to Lichtenstein's 36.000 population, we might look at the Midtre Gauldal municipality of Norway consisting of 6238 people alongside its neighbour, Melhus (pop. 6939). Marit Bjørgen has 8 Olympic gold medals, 4 silver and 3 bronze.
In Melhus, Jørgen Graabak has two gold and a silver, Toralf Engan has a gold, Unni Lehn has a gold (although that was Football in Sydney 2000), Oddvar Brå has 3 silver, Magnar Estenstad has three silver and Magne Thomassen has a silver, all in winter games.
That's 27 Olympic medals across 7 athletes among a population of 13.177 people, or an Olympic medal per 454 people.
If we're going for gold it's 12 gold for 13.177 people or a gold per 1098 inhabitants. Lichtenstein only has 2 gold and is around 16 times worse per capita by that metric.
(As an aside, the Winer games need to seriously get some more entertaining sports so it's not just Scandinavians who compete in the sports at scale)
I don’t think it’s about lack of entertainment value. Most Winter sports are inherently more expensive to engage in due to equipment costs on top of the fact that most of the world doesn’t live...
I don’t think it’s about lack of entertainment value. Most Winter sports are inherently more expensive to engage in due to equipment costs on top of the fact that most of the world doesn’t live anywhere with easy access to wintry climes.
This was surprising,
I totally expected Norway, Sweden and Finland to be in the top for all Olympic games due to domination per capita in the Winter Olympics, but that these countries also do well (alongside Denmark) in the summer games is quite shocking: https://medalspercapita.com/#medals-per-capita:summer
If we want to look outside Lichtenstein's tiny population of 36.000, I think we'd be better off looking at areas with a couple hundred thousand people at least, if we're to say something about sportsmanship across the board, or super successful sporting cultures.
I'm guessing the Trøndelag region of central Norway are clearly the best region in the world per capita of an area that size.
Per 2018 (article in Norwegian) a population of 455.000 people had won 109 medals in the winter Olympics alone, which would make it the 15 winningest country in the winter Olympics on its own. That's a winter medal per 4174 people per 2018.
There are also several athletes from the region that have been part of team golds during summer Olympics (Women's soccer, Women's handball, Vebjørn Rodal won 800m gold in Atlanta, Knut Knudsen won gold at 4000m track cycling in 1972, I don't dare to try figuring out silvers and bronze medals because there are so many to check regionality for)
If we break down things further, to compare to Lichtenstein's 36.000 population, we might look at the Midtre Gauldal municipality of Norway consisting of 6238 people alongside its neighbour, Melhus (pop. 6939). Marit Bjørgen has 8 Olympic gold medals, 4 silver and 3 bronze.
In Melhus, Jørgen Graabak has two gold and a silver, Toralf Engan has a gold, Unni Lehn has a gold (although that was Football in Sydney 2000), Oddvar Brå has 3 silver, Magnar Estenstad has three silver and Magne Thomassen has a silver, all in winter games.
That's 27 Olympic medals across 7 athletes among a population of 13.177 people, or an Olympic medal per 454 people.
If we're going for gold it's 12 gold for 13.177 people or a gold per 1098 inhabitants. Lichtenstein only has 2 gold and is around 16 times worse per capita by that metric.
(As an aside, the Winer games need to seriously get some more entertaining sports so it's not just Scandinavians who compete in the sports at scale)
I don’t think it’s about lack of entertainment value. Most Winter sports are inherently more expensive to engage in due to equipment costs on top of the fact that most of the world doesn’t live anywhere with easy access to wintry climes.